Tag Archives: Travel

Counting Down to the Vermont City Marathon

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 2 comments

Ok – so I took a short blogging hiatus, but trust me – I was still running. The Vermont City Marathon is less than two days away and I am getting nervous excited. I have one measly little two-mile run left for training and then that’s it my friends – go time.  My current total mileage is resting at 518 miles. Here’s a quick snapshot of the past few weeks:

Yup – as you may have noticed, there was a total slacker week in there – it was called the week of my 30th birthday. Yikes! I felt I deserved to go a little crazy and depart from my plan a bit to live it up.  Hubby and I had a busy weekend attending the Manhattan Cocktail Classic and then another friend’s birthday party on Saturday night. It wiped me out. But we had soo much fun and we got to try on funny hats!

But now it’s time to get serious. There is marathon happening on Sunday. I will be running it. It will be my fifth marathon and it will be Hubby’s first. He had a leg injury issue earlier in the month, but now he’s pretty confident that he’s ready to do it. Also, he’s raised almost $1,500 for his charity efforts in honor of his father…

That is very impressive. I tried to do a charity thing at the end of last year and struggled to raise even $500. He did awesome – his father would be so proud.

So the obsessive weather checking has begun and I have to stay that things are looking okay as of right now…dare I say almost perfect? According to weather.com (both friend and foe depending on the day you talk to me), the forecast for Burlington, VT on Sunday is mostly cloudy with a high of 73 and low of 55 degrees. It couldn’t sound much better to me. Knock on wood, cross your fingers, say a little prayer and all of that. If that forecast can just stay in a holding pattern for two days, we will be all good.

I’m also super excited that Hubby and I will be running as a “team” – meaning we will be wearing matching shirts.

Realistically, we may start together, but I have a feeling he will leave me in the dust. He’s much faster than me. But I love that we will be wearing our matching “Team Chief” shirts in honor of his father. A small team, but a passionate one. So if there’s anyone else out there reading this that’s running VCM – look out for Team Chief!!

Ok – that’s pretty much all for now. The next post will be the big one – the marathon recap. Wish us luck!! See you on the other side!

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Posted in Marathon, Marathon Training, Running, Uncategorized

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My 2011 Boston Marathon Memories

Posted on April 16, 2012 | 4 comments

As  my Twitter feed was blowing up today with Boston Marathon updates, I got to thinking about my 0ne and only Boston Marathon experience last year. Humor me for a moment as I share my top 2011 Boston Marathon memories and tips…

2011 Boston Marathon Memories & Tips  

  • The excitement in the air was tangible – I cannot recall another race I’ve run where the whole city was buzzing like this (note: I haven’t run NYC yet, but I expect it will be the same way).
  • I wish I had spent more time in Boston. It was a quick in and out trip for  my best friend and me. We took the train up on Sunday, checked in, went to the expo, ate dinner, ran the race, and checked out and took the train back right afterwards. It felt rushed. If you make it to Boston – don’t rush it. Enjoy it!
  • Make reservations for 2013 like NOW!! No seriously. I tried to make reservations like a month or two in advance and was laughed at. Apparently people start like 6-8 months in advance. We did ok – we tagged along with a smart friend who had made reservations and was able to add two more people. Thankfully!
  • Don’t overeat at the Expo: I did. All the tasty goodies to try and free stuff being given out. Another bite of a yummy bar – sure don’t mind if I do. But then oh – 30 minutes later after all those random snacks are mixing in my tummy and it did not feel good. Enjoy the expo, but don’t enjoy it too much with your tummy.
  • Getting a ride to the start is AWESOME! Our friend’s father was running Boston last year and his wife was driving him to the start. He offered us a ride and at first I declined. Being the paranoid planner that I am, I figured the standard race-issued ride to the start was the safest way to go. My friend convinced me to be a little daring for once and take the ride and it was the best decision ever. We got to sleep in a little  late, didn’t have to wait for hours in the runner’s village and got dropped off super close to the start. Do it if you can!
  • I’ve never been so cramped running – I mean as in having people around me at ALL times. All my other marathons have been pretty small – 2,000 runners or less – so the amount of runners kind of overwhelmed and terrified me.
  • I don’t really remember heartbreak hill. I know that sounds crazy, but I think after all my training on the Central Park hills and the fact that I had NO clue where I was in the race made that hill seem less than intimidating. I saw the sign that said I was over the hill before I even knew I hit it. I wish I was always so lucky when it comes to hills – I’m  not. But heartbreak really isn’t as bad as a lot of people make it out to be – so don’t worry yourself sick about it.
  • I DO remember the Wellesley girls and the deafening roar they made as I was coming around the corner to their section of the race. I was dumbfounded. It was the loudest thing EVER.
  • I wish I had written my name on my shirt. With all those spectators, you really can’t go wrong writing your name on your shirt. My friend had a shirt on with the name of her charity and literally EVERYONE kept cheering for her. I, however, did not hear a single “go girl with the pink shirt.” Names matter. I made sure I had my name on my shirt for my next marathon and it was pretty fun. You feel like you have so many friends. Or you’re a celebrity.
  • I ran with my phone. And it was weird. I wore a spibelt and I’m not quite sure how I was okay with that. I’m a less is more kind of person when it comes to running accoutrements. Most days I want to fling my water belt out the window. So how I managed to run 26.2 miles with a spibelt on that held not only my phone, but two Gus, I will never quite understand. I guess it’s a testament to how comfortable the spibelt is. Kudos spibelt – well done.
  • I ate two huge candy bars after the race. I guess this goes back to my last post and my sugar issues. Obviously this sugar thing has been going on for a while. I remember first housing a snickers bar and then I think it was a Twix. I didn’t even buy the candy bars. My friend had four candy bars for some reason and was kind enough to share them with my hungry eyes. Good planning Lauren – well done. She even convinced me that a snickers bar is like an energy bar because it has so much protein. She didn’t need to sell me – I was gonna eat it no matter what. 🙂

So those are just a few of my Boston memories. What about the course, you ask? Was it hard? Did I hurt? How did I do? I supposed the course was hard, the race was hard, I was in some pain, and I did okay. But for me, the Boston Marathon was so much more than that stuff. It’s an experience I cherished and so maybe I tend to remember random things from that day more than the actual course and race details. So what.

But of course, you can get all of the nitty gritty race details in my recap from last year if you’re really interested.  Happy Marathon Monday!!

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Hurricane Irene and Long Run

Posted on September 2, 2011 | 2 comments

So I finally posted my Maine vacation recap, but I never even mentioned the Hurricane Irene and all the fun she brought into my life. So last weekend Hubby and I were both headed upstate, but separately. I went to a family party way up in Watertown, NY (up near Canada!) and he was in Utica. I took the train and he drove.

When I left on Friday afternoon, I was getting nervous. Hurricane Irene was on her way, Hubby and I were going separate ways, and our cat was staying home alone in our apartment. Worried momma is what I quickly became. As I headed upstate on Amtrak, I listened as the Amtrak ticket dude laughed hysterically when a woman asked about service back into NYC on Monday and he told her she’d be lucky to get back in by late Tuesday. My stomach churned.

I began making preparations to have our neighbor check on Mr. Murphy, and our apartment, and conjured images of our windows shattering and Murphy dashing down the fire escape. I am a worry-wart – without a doubt.

So my weekend upstate, while fun, was also riddled with anxiety. I wish I could have relaxed a little more, but it’s tough when newscasters a predicting terrible destruction right in your backyard.

To relieve some of my building stress, I went out for a long run on Saturday morning. I ran along a gorgeous road right down by the water, up to a small lighthouse, into the town of Cape Vincent, and then back to my grandparent’s farm (yes, I said farm. They owned a farm and we stay in the farm house). All in all, I covered about 14 miles. Here was my route and splits:

Yes, I was soo slow!! But it was my first long run in a while and I didn’t want to push it. Plus I wanted to enjoy the scenery. It felt good to log the mileage though.

We had a fun family part on Saturday and then on Sunday we woke up to crazy wind and knew it was time to make our way back south. My parents dropped me off in Utica and Hubby and I ran a few errands and then we attempted to make it to Albany. What would have taken an hour and half took 3 hours. It was not fun. Road closures, detours, detour road closures, flooding, etc. We finally got to Albany around 11 p.m.

At that time, we also knew the thurway down to NYC was partially closed. But we got ourselves up at 4:30 the next morning to begin the trek down to NYC. We got to about 50 miles away and then encountered road closures and from there it just got worse and worse. Every road we attempted to drive on was closed. We kept heading West and then South. The best moment was when we got to a closed road with a message on the sign. It said something like:

“This road is closed, but if you can get up enough speed to jump the 15 foot gorge ahead, then by all means continue on…”

It was hysterical and I was soo mad that I didn’t get a picture of that sign. I will never forget it though.

We finally reached home at about 10:30 – 5.5 hours of traveling that usually take 2.5 hours. ARGH! I worked from home for the rest of the day on Monday and then fell asleep at like 7 p.m. – exhausted from my stress.

The rest of my week got better. I squeezed in a 5-mile run on Tuesday and a 6-mile run on Thursday. And now we are headed upstate again this weekend. I’m hoping to get another nice long run in.

So that’s all for me. How about you guy – how did you “weather” the hurricane? And what fun plans do you have for Labor Day weekend?!

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Kennebunkport, Maine Vacation Recap

Posted on September 1, 2011 | 3 comments

I can’t believe it’s already September. I feel like Hubby and I just got back from our Maine vacation, but in reality, we got back on August 22. We stayed in Kennebunkport, ME from August 18 – 22 in this adorable Bed and Breakfast called Bufflehead Cove. Our room was really cute and had a balcony, a Queen bed (ahh the luxury!), a full bathroom and a Jacuzzi tub. The B&B was situated right on the river and we got to enjoy our breakfast each morning on the front porch watching people kayak and paddleboard on by.


And let me just say that the breakfast each morning was AMAZING!! Seriously delicious, homemade and usually most ingredients were all-natural. I missed taking a picture of the first morning’s spread, but here are the other days:

Mmm yummy. I am getting hungry just thinking about our breakfasts there. But enough about the B&B food, we did get out and explore the area quite a bit. Our first day there, we arrived in the late afternoon, checked in and then headed into the town of Kennebunkport. Our B&B was just outside. We walked around the cute little town exploring and relaxing and then we headed to dinner at Arundel Wharf. It was a gorgeous night, right on the water, so it was just perfect. We enjoyed our meal on the deck and sipped on some white wine and beer. We called it an early night because we had plans to head to a few nearby towns the next day.

On Friday, we devoured our delicious breakfast, which was served everyday between 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. and hung out with our buddy Loqui the cat while we ate. He reminded me of our Murphy, only not quite as large and in charge.

After breakfast, we drove to the town of Ogunquit and took a nice long walk on the Marginal Way (a long walkway above and along the beach)


and then we drove to York and saw the Nubble Lighthouse.

After our long day excursion, we headed back to the B&B, showered and then had dinner in town at Bandaloop. It was a little bit of a different place, but totally delicious. On Saturday morning it was another busy day after breakfast. We took a schooner ride from Kennebunkport out for about two hours on the water and got to see the Bush estate (it is gigantic). The weather was amazing, sunny with a slight breeze, and our trip was fabulous.

After we got back from our boat ride, we headed to Cape Porpoise for a nice relaxing lunch on the dock outside the Chowder House. There was a pretty decent view of a nearby lighthouse from the Pier. And again, we had such a gorgeous day.

So after exploring Cape Porpoise, we headed to Goose Rocks Beach and chilled there for a little while. The water was a little bit colder than I like, but it was nice to spend some time walking around and hanging out.

After hitting up the beach, it was getting close to dinner so we showered back at the B&B and then headed back into Kennebunkport. We had reservations at Mabel’s, which is supposedly a Bush favorite. I don’t know what I was expecting, but a tiny little shack wasn’t what I envisioned. Mabel’s is completely unassuming and small. We made reservations for outdoor seats and we were almost sitting in the road!

But I completely loved the place. The food was delicious and reasonably priced. My only hang-up was having to drink my beer from a Patriot’s glass. But other than that, Mabel’s gets an A in my book. Here is my dinner from Mabel’s…

The next day (Sunday) was our last day in Maine. We decided to head to Portland for the day and stopped at Orchard Beach to visit one of Hubby’s friend’s along the way. After our morning get-together, we made it to Portland and explored a bit, had some lunch and hung out.

As the afternoon turned into evening, we drove to Kittery to have dinner with one of Hubby’s co-workers. And I got to watch Hubby learn how to properly eat a full lobster, with the bib and all. These instructions helped, as did his friend’s coaching.

Hubby did a pretty decent job. We finished off our night with some ice-cream and headed back to Bufflehead Cove for our final night of our mini vacation.

We thoroughly enjoyed our last breakfast on Monday before we loaded our stuff into the car and headed home.

So what was my overall Maine experience? It was fabulous! We had such a good time, explored some really beautiful areas, ate a ton of great seafood and managed to run into a bunch of people we knew. Seriously, Maine is some sort of hot spot. On top of the people that we actually planned to get together with, we also ran into a neighbor from Hubby’s parent’s neighborhood in upstate NY, another co-workers at Hubby’s company, and a girl I went to college with. It really felt like such a small world in Kennebunkport, ME. And I loved it!!

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Posted in Holidays, Restaurants, Reviews, Travel, Uncategorized, Vacation

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Quick Trip to Florida

Posted on August 6, 2011 | 6 comments

Hello all. How is everyone? I got back late Thursday night from traveling for work for a few days, hence the blog has been a little quiet. The company I work for has an office down near Orlando and we had a big meeting onsite. Those who know me well, know that I like traveling for personal vacations, but am not a huge fan of traveling for work.

Why you ask? Well, traveling stresses me out. Even when vacationing, I don’t fully relax until I’ve arrived where I’m supposed to and have checked in to my hotel. I have developed a little OCD when it comes to traveling over the years. I am constantly worried about being late, missing flights, etc. So the end result is that I tend to make people I’m traveling with leave extremely early and then sit with me in airports and train stations for obscene amounts of time. Boring at times, yes. But it’s worth it for them not to have to travel with a stressed out and crazed Lindsey.

What about you? Are you a laid-back travel or a worry-wart like me?

So my travel went well. I was going to post from the hotel, but then things got hectic and I ran out of time. I was pretty pleased to have my very own suite for this trip – not that I spent any time in the hotel really. But the room wasn’t bad.

All this space for little old me!? Yup, I had a full suite to myself. I barely used any of it.

Plus, this crazy hotel served a complimentary breakfast (normal) and dinner (what?). We didn’t partake in the dinner, but I could not get over the fact that they provide their guests with two free meals a day! I saw a ton of families staying there and it seems like a pretty smart plan in my book to make a trip to Orlando a bit more affordable.

Today is Saturday and I’m headed to Connecticut in a bit for a little reunion with my college girls. I am also going to try to squeeze a short run in before that. I slept until 8:00 a.m. today – I think I really needed the rest. So I’ll only run maybe 4-5 miles this morning. It hasn’t been a great running week for me, but a few miles is better than nothing.

Also – I’m very jealous of everyone who went to BlogHer and will be going to the Healthy Living Summit. For some reason, my schedule never coincides with those events, but I love reading the recaps!

Anyway – it’s a gorgeous day for a quick run, maybe some pool time at my friend’s house and then some quality friend time! Hope you all have a great weekend!

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Posted in Running, Travel, Uncategorized

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Post From The Road

Posted on July 29, 2011 | 2 comments

So the title is pretty self explanatory. I’m writing my first blog post from the road. We are on 87 in the worst traffic ever. Regardless, I thought I’d give blogging from the road a shot. I’m not entirely sure if I can post photos this way and I’m sure my spelling will be horrendous.

The good news of my week is that I managed to accomplish all of the goals I set for myself yesterday which were to get out of work on time, squeeze in a 5 mile run, and make a delicious dinner. Check, check, check.

20110729-043301.jpg

While I was on my run, I got to thinking about how I tend to compare myself to my “peak” of fitness pretty often. You might think it’s weird that I’ve already passed my peak and can pinpoint it. It was when I was training for the Poconos Marathon last spring. I had incredible endurance, speed and muscle tone. So inevitably, I find myself comparing my current fitness level to that “peak” and I always wind up feeling sort of disappointed. I don’t think it’s a particularly good thing to be doing, but I just can’t seem to stop it.

So my plan is to strive for a new level of fitness that fits with my current level of exercise and life. I am not training for a marathon so I have to accept that I won’t have that endurance and muscle tone that I previously had. So instead I want to strive to run 3-4 times a week and eat healthy overall. It’s hard for me to not have that marathon goal driving me and I need to create some new motivation and challenges. Maybe that will be half marathons, finding new running buddies, maybe taking some classes. But I need to stop comparing myself to that peak because it’s unrealistic and maybe a bit unhealthy right now.

What about you? How do you stay motivated and comfortable with your level of exercise and goals?

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Eggland’s Best Blogger Brunch & Happy B-Day Hubby!

Posted on November 23, 2010 | 3 comments

So I’m a bit behind on my blogging. I meant to blog about this past Sunday’s Blogger Brunch yesterday, but that just didn’t happen.

But before I get into that, I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!! I miss you and can’t wait to see you soon. I hope you are having a great day.

[source] I wanted to take a Happy Birthday picture with Murphy to send to you, but he’s up at my parent’s house already. But I think this cat accurately captures what Murphy’s attitude would be about taking said photo with me. 🙂

Anyway, after the race on Sunday, I went back home for a quick shower and then headed out to the Gramercy area for a Blogger Brunch hosted by Ashley.

I arrived just a group of local bloggers were heading inside and knew right away that this was going to be a fun brunch. Ashley welcomed us into her home graciously, gave us a little tour (she has a closet any NYC resident would die for) and filled our hands with mimosas. We also got a chance to meet her hubby before he headed out. A special thank you to Bo for letting us ladies take over his apartment for a bit.

After some brief introductions where I met, Rebecca Theodora (we have the same last name – well my maiden name – and think we might somehow be distantly related), Marissa, Caronae, Robyn, Ali (yay for these last two Upper East Siders!), Deidre and Amelia, Jocelyn and Shannon for the first time. I also got a chance to catch up with Megan a bit – we’ve previously met at a few blogger outings and I wanted to says congrats to her in person on her great run at the NYC Marathon, we got down to business with some delicious eats!

Eggland’s Best was kind enough to sponsor our brunch to help spread breast cancer awareness. They also provided some helpful handouts with breast-cancer related information. Ashley started off the presentation and then the discussion kept moving right along.

Thank you Eggland’s Best! It was so nice to meet everyone and hear about their blog, what got them involved in blogging and the topics they talk about. I’ve got a whole new list of bloggers to catch up on!

Here’s a group shot of us (photo borrowed from Ali’s blog)

Hopefully this is just the first of many NYC blogger meet-ups! I also hope that some NYC bloggers might want to join my book club when I start it in January. 🙂 A big thanks again to Ashley for hosting!!

Is it vacation time yet? I’m working a full day today (Tuesday) and until 3 p.m. tomorrow. What are your Thanksgiving plans? I’m heading up to Utica for Thanksgiving at the in laws!

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No Rest for the Weary

Posted on March 15, 2010 | 5 comments

Good morning all – have you adjusted to the new time yet? I was actually so exhausted from my busy weekend that I was able to go to bed fairly early last night and adjust to the change a little bit easier.

My weekend was fabulous, but exhausting. I travelled to Albany on Friday night and had a nice dinner with my parents at Beff’s.

We were home pretty early and I went to bed at a decent hour so I could run on Saturday morning before the impending rain and all my activities. I was up by 6 a.m. and ate an English muffins with peanut butter and bananas for fuel. I was out the door a little before 7 a.m. and had a wonderful run. I did almost the same run as the last time I was home (when my Garmin and I got in a fight and I basically had a miserable run).

This time, the run was perfect. I felt really great, the predicted rain was holding off and I ran pretty well. Here are my run stats:

Mile 1 – 9:00
Mile 2 – 8:55
Mile 3 – 8:29
Mile 4 – 8:17
Mile 5 – 8:36
Mile 6 – 8:15
Mile 7 – 9:15
Mile 8 – 8:55
Mile 9 – 8:33
Mile 10 – 8:09
Mile 11 – 8:38
.25 – 1:54

Total mileage  was 11.25 in 1:37:01

I was feeling pretty good after this run. My fastest mile (mile 10) was partially run on my highschool track. I really picked it up and enjoyed doing some speedwork there. My slowest mile (mile 7) was one giant hill. I purposely added a bunch of hills to this route because I know that the Poconos marathon is going to be hilly. It scares me a bit that I was a little bit slow during that section – I hope I can maintain my speed during the marathon.

Overall, it was a great run and it started sprinkling just as I got back to my parent’s house. Very lucky!

After my run I showered and headed out to my friend Jenny’s bridal shower at the Edison Club in Rexford, N.Y. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. We had a brunch/lunch selection of food and I went with both:

I was ravenous after my run and cleaned this entire plate. 🙂

And then there was a delicious bananas foster crepe for dessert. And you know how I love crepes…

Yummy! Jenny’s bachelorette party was that evening as well, so after we wrapped things up at the shower, we headed to our hotel in Saratoga to get ready for an evening of bachelorette fun! 

We spent the beginning portion of the evening in the hotel suite eating some amazing dips, veggies and pizza (sorry no photos). Then we headed out on the town. Here’s a lovely group shot of many of the girls:

The bridey is the lady in the middle in white! The rest of us were garbed in some Irish green attire since the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Albany took place on Saturday and we knew most people would be celebrating in Irish style. Such a great time – I can’t wait for the wedding!!

So now it’s Monday and back to the grind. I have plans for a nice, easy run on the treadmill after work (since the rain is still lingering in NYC) and then I’m heading to bed early again.

Did anyone else watch that new program Minute to Win it last night? I’ll admit that it totally hooked me. I was really rooting for the Rachel girl – I thought she could go pretty far. But don’t worry – you won’t catch me practicing at home or anything – I’m content to just watch.

And starting tomorrow, I think the weather in NYC is supposed to be amazing!! Can’t wait. I may have to do a nice Central Park run after work finally. I hope the nice weather hangs on through the weekend. Have a great day all!

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Party, Pizza Dip and Peanut Butter Balls

Posted on December 28, 2009 | 14 comments

Good morning blog world. It’s Monday again and I’m heading back to work [groan]. I know that a ton of people took off from Christmas through New Years and I’m very jealous. I’m headed back to work and dreading it.

So I was a bad blogger and was MIA on Sunday. The party on Saturday night was a ton of fun and Sunday was mostly spent lounging around, doing laundry and packing for the trip back to NYC. The Hubby convinced me to relax instead of going for a run and testing out my Garmin – darn him! But it was nice to just hang for a bit.

So here’s a quick recap of Saturday. I pretty much took no photos on Sunday – so it will be considered a lost day. But here goes Saturday.

Breakfast was an English muffin with peanut butter and topped with a banana. Side of cranberry juice.

My mother and I got out during the day to run some errands and brave the shopping crowds. It was a quick trip, but on the way home I had a Gingerbread Latte craving. It was only my second of the season – they are so darn expensive.

I snacked on a few other things during the day, but this was the only thing I managed to capture: Greek yogurt with Kashi cereal.

We headed to the party around 7:00 p.m., so I didn’t really eat a “full dinner” beforehand. I had some cheese and crackers, leftover from our Christmas day appetizers. But the party had plenty of food! I also made my pizza dip to bring along.

The party was a blast – thanks go out to Jenny and Kevin for hosting. I love their house and they are such great hosts. Here are a few pics from the night.

A few apps on the pretty table.

All the girls gathering for a group photo. I thought the stairs would be a perfect spot, but turns out we had a lot of girls and things got a bit squished.

I still think it’s super cute, even though a little tight. There were also lots of yummy desserts. And you know I can’t say “no” to desserts.

My favorite were the peanut butter balls.

Sorry for the terrible pic! I mainly snacked on veggies, taco dip, and a few desserts. I had one scoop of my pizza dip and then went back for more and it was gone. I guess that is a good thing. I had two glasses of wine and one beer throughout the night as well.

Toward the end of the party some meatballs came out and I couldn’t resist them!

They were goood! Hubby and I had such a great time. Before we knew it, everyone had left and it was time to go. Here we are together at the very end of the night.

Wow – I need a haircut!

And now I will leave you with a photo of Mr. Murphy sporting a bow-tie that I bought him from Target after the sweater didn’t fit. Doesn’t he look regal?

Mr. Murph didn’t travel so well in the car on the way up (he got sick), so we had to give him half a Benadryl for the trip back. My mom got that tip from someone who works at Petsmart, but the Benadryl should only be 25 milligrams and then cut in half. Mr. Murphy seemed a bit groggy on the trip back, but we made it home with no sickness, so I consider it a success.

Does your pet(s) travel? Do they like it? Any traveling tips?

I’m planning to hit the gym today after work to burn off some of those holiday calories and get back into the swing of things. It’s time for me to start thinking about my 2010 goals. I’ve seen them posted all over the blogosphere, so I suppose I should give it a whirl.

What’s your biggest 2010 goal?

Have a great Monday everyone!

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Posted in Dessert, Holidays, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized

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Callahan Christmas Weekend Recap

Posted on December 21, 2009 | 6 comments

Happy Monday everyone – happy short week! I’m super excited to have some time off coming up. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I hope all the fellow NYC bloggers/readers managed okay in the almost foot of snow. How crazy. We came back last night around 6:15 and things were looking pretty decent. We managed to find a parking spot right out front and we climbed our way across the huge mounds of snow.

How did you like the snow this weekend?

Coming from upstate New York, snow has never really bothered me all that much. Upstate I used to have to drive in it, but down here I don’t have to worry about that. So I throw on my tall boots and stomp out in the slush without a problem.

So this weekend up in Utica was a ton of fun! We drove up on Friday night after work and I was exhausted and still recovering from my Thursday night debauchery, so I slept for a lot of the ride. We got to Bill’s parent’s house pretty late and I went right to bed.

Saturday morning I got up and had breakfast with Bill’s mom – a bowl of raisin bran, which was camera shy. Much of my food this weekend was shy and I was lazy. Then I set to wrapping the nieces and nephews’ Christmas presents. The party started around 3:00 and this was the food spread:

Lots of yumminess. I had some pasta, meatballs, shrimp, crackers and cheese, and fruit salad. It was a perfect mixture of all good things.

But dessert was my very favorite:

Bill’s sister Christine made a Hazelnut Chocolate Cake and a Cranberry Cobbler Cake (I made up the names – that’s what I called them). I loved them both. The hazelnut was my favorite at Thanksgiving, but I think the cranberry won my heart this time around. Bill’s mom and I devoured it. YUM! Plus, when there’s fruit, I don’t feel too bad.

What is one of your favorite holiday desserts?

There were tons of nieces and nephews at the party – do you know that I’m a Great Aunt!?! Isn’t that funny? Bill’s sister’s first son has a little girl that’s about 2 1/2 and a 1-month old. I went from having no nieces and nephews (I’m an only child) to have about a zillion when I married Bill. It’s great! Here are a bunch of the kids attacking Bill’s brother-in-law Kevin.

And Bill had fun playing with his best friend Dino and his wife Jen’s son Nathan. How cute is he?

Later on Saturday night we watched “The Hangover” and I laughed until I almost cried. Thank goodness my hangover was nothing like that.

The Hubby and I started heading back to NYC on Sunday afternoon around 2:30. I had a bunch of stuff that I needed to do that evening in preparation for our department’s holiday lunch today.

After we managed to find parking and lug everything over the giant snowbanks and upstairs I had some dinner. Leftovers from the party – pasta with meatballs.

I then set to work frosting some sugar cookies I had previously made for today’s lunch.  

I also wrapped my secret santa gift (lotions from Sephora) and put together little gifts for my immediate co-workers (homemade fudge, homemade cookies, a candy cane and scratch-off ticket).

By the time I was done with all that, it was time for bed! I read for a little before I fell asleep. I’m about 200 pages into Ahab’s Wife and I’m really enjoying it so far. Just when I think I know what’s going to happen, something completely different happens. It’s keeping me on my toes.

Ok – that’s all for today. I have our work holiday lunch today, so I will definitely be taking photos there and trying to stay as healthy as possible (which may be difficult). And I’m going to try to hit the gym after work today, but I’m feeling pretty exhausted. The holidays are tiring!

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